Choosing the Best Garmin Smartwatch for Your Specific Needs

Garmin has a long history of making some of the toughest, smartest navigation systems around. Those in all sorts of recreational and commercial situations depend on their Garmin products every day. Today, if you are looking for the best smartwatch for your needs, you are lucky that Garmin has gotten into the smartwatch game. You can trust your Garmin smartwatch to give you the most accurate fitness and location data. Garmin competes against all the major smartwatch brands on the market today (be sure to check out some of our Garmin comparisons.) In this post, we tackle the entire Garmin collection and give you an honest, unbiased breakdown on what separates one Garmin smartwatch from the next.

Understanding Garmin Smartwatches 

Garmin offers smartwatches for just about anyone. These are some of the best smartwatches for swimming, diving, golfing, running, cycling and hiking. Here’s a quick look at the different families of Garmin smartwatch (if you see one you like, click the header to get in depth specs and commentary)

The Garmin Forerunner – For Serious Fitness Tracking   

The Garmin Forerunner watch family is filled with smartwatches that are designed specifically for athletes that want fitness tracking capabilities for different sports. These watches are often waterproof, they usually feature GPS tracking for distance tracking, and often come with advanced features like a built-in heartrate monitor. They’re highly useful for tracking workout routines and getting in shape.

The Garmin Fenix – For Hikers

The Garmin Fenix product line is a set of smartwatches that cater specifically to hikers. This is where Garmin’s navigational history really shines. The Fenix is the smartwatch for serious hikers. Get detailed topographic maps, useful 3-axis compass tools, detailed GPS tracking and powerful waypoint tools to find your way through any trail.

The Garmin Vivomove – A Hybrid Smartwatch

The Garmin Vivomove is a more hybrid-type smartwatch. It combines the excellent fitness tracking capabilities of standard Garmin smartwatches, along with capable smartwatch features and good solid GPS tracking to make a useful tool in every aspect of life.

The Garmin Vivofit – A Basic Fitness Tracker

Not truly a smartwatch, the Garmin Vivofit is a basic fitness tracker without many extra features at all. Use it to track your steps and your calories and enjoy performance for a full year without having to charge it. It’s similar to basic FitBit products.

Garmin Descent – For Divers

Garmin Descent smartwatches are designed with SCUBA divers in mind. The Descent holds its own against all of the more established dive watches on the market today. They come packed with diving features that make it easier staying safe throughout a dive and navigating the underwater environment.

Garmin Quatix – For Boaters

The Garmin Quatix lineup of smartwatches are designed with boaters in mind. Control different features of your boat, see useful boat information and get all the navigation information that you need while out on the water. It’s also designed for boat racers and comes with some features specifically for them.

Garmin Approach – For Golfers

The Garmin Approach lineup of smartwatches are all designed specifically with golfers in mind. These watches offer detailed information about golf courses and many even integrate with a golf swing sensor tool to help you improve your swing form. These watches are perfect companions for the golf course.

Garmin D2 – For Pilots

The Garmin D2 watches are designed with pilots in mind. They feature advanced flight log and tracking tools. They’re designed with advanced mapping tools, useful weather tools and more features that pilots will want to take advantage of on a regular basis.

Garmin Tactix – For Soldier or Special Ops or Outdoor Enthusiasts

The Garmin Tactix smartwatches offer advanced navigation tools including detailed GPS and GLONASS satellite integration. Track waypoints, built maps and navigate through any environment that you encounter with this watch. It comes with the standard ABC sensors, as well as advanced tactical capabilities like Jumpmaster activity, projected waypoints, MGRS displays and more. The watch has all the features that you need to carry out delicate missions and to navigate through unfamiliar territory. Or you can look tactical while you navigate the local park.

The Garmin Forerunner Series

Garmin makes 5 models of the Garmin Forerunner, ranging from the Garmin Forerunner 25 up to the Garmin Forerunner 935. Basically the Forerunner 25 is the least advanced, and the Forerunner 935 is like a waterproof data grabbing supercomputer strapped to your wrist.

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Garmin Forerunner 25

Garmin Forerunner 35

Garmin Forerunner 645

Garmin Forerunner 735

Garmin Forerunner 935

The Garmin Forerunner 25 is an Effective Lightweight Fitness Tracking Tool

The Garmin Forerunner 25 is a good basic fitness watch that’s small, lightweight and offers most of the tracking and monitoring features that a fitness enthusiast would be looking for. If you just want a watch that you can slip onto your wrist and keep up with things like your heart rate, your distance and the calories that you burn during a workout, this little watch is the ideal tool for you. We dig a bit deeper into it’s different features down below, but it’s a good lightweight fitness watch at its core.

The Garmin Forerunner 25 Base Features:

• Tracks distance, calories, heart rate and pace
• Can be used to share progress with friends and family
• 8-10 hours of standard battery life, 8-10 weeks in tracking mode
• Offered in small and large form-factors
• Features replaceable wrist bands in different colors
• Simple design and features
• Capable smartphone tracking

Powerful Fitness Tracking Capabilities

First and foremost, the Garmin Forerunner 25 smartwatch is built to be a reliable fitness tracker. It features a GPS, can effectively track your heartrate, and also keep track of things like your pace and the calories that you’ve burned during your workout. It’s when all these different things come together that you get a really potent product.

From the moment that you head out for a run, a bike ride, or even to the gym to start training you want your watch firmly in position on your wrist. The watch will help you meet target heartrate goals, help you keep track of how much total work you’re doing during your workouts, and most importantly, give you statistics that you can look at over time as you work to improve your fitness levels. There is no better indicator for improved fitness than data pulled from this fitness watch over time, and that can serve as a very real motivator for you as you try and stick with your workout routine. Set up specific heart rate goals, build custom workouts, and push yourself to the limits with help from this smartwatch.

Activity Monitoring All Day Long

While the watch excels at tracking your body during serious workouts, it’s useful all day long for light tracking tasks. Keep count of your total steps during the day and get reminders that help you move more during the day for improved health. This little watch can really help you keep track of your activity levels throughout the day, and could aid in building healthier habits, especially if you work in an office environment where sitting still is common.

Long Lasting Battery Performance

Battery power is really important for something like a smartwatch, especially when you use it to track yourself throughout the day. That’s one area that the Garmin Forerunner 25 is impressive. While you’ll only get battery life of between 8 and 10 hours while running the GPS tracker itself, with the smaller tracker lasting around 8 and the larger lasting about 10, you can get substantially more battery life when using the watch as a light tracker outside of those tough workouts. Sure you won’t make it through a full day with the GPS turned on, but switch it off and go with a light tracking approach for your watch and it can last between 8 and 10 weeks depending on if you have the small or large watch.

Most people that use the Garmin 25 will rely on a mix of these two modes, keeping the watch mostly in the light tracking mode. It shouldn’t be too difficult to get a few days of performance out of the watch before you need to plug it in for a charge again.

Sync with Your Smartphone

Smartwatches are typically used as activity trackers for smart phones. That’s something that you can do with the Garmin Forerunner 25 as well if you know how to use it. Sync it up with your smartphone and you’ll see when you have incoming calls and texts, and enjoy quick access to this important information when you want it most. Save yourself some time and avoid pulling your phone out of your pocket with help from this watch, or skip those features and just use it like a traditional fitness tracker.

Connected Features

The one thing that makes the Garmin Forerunner 25 into an exciting fitness tracker that works well for most athletes is that all the information the watch gathers during your workouts, can be uploaded to the internet and shared with others. Connect the watch to a smartphone or a computer and you can load your stats into Garmin Connect, an online fitness community.

With your stats uploaded to Garmin Connect, you can look at your run on a map, you can participate in challenges and you can keep track of your workouts and your overall progress. If you are looking for a way to track your fitness levels as they improve over time, Garmin Connect makes that very simple to do. By interacting with the online community you’ll improve your motivation to continue with your workouts, and you’ll likely see better results over time as well.

The Garmin Forerunner 25 isn’t the most advanced smartwatch that you’ll come across today, but it’s rugged, lightweight and is a good solid fitness tracker. If that’s all you need from a watch, this product is perfect for you. If you want to be able to add a bunch of extra apps to your watch, and you want it to take on the role of your smartphone and a bunch of other tasks in your life, the Forerunner 25 likely isn’t the best option for you. Garmin offers a good range of smartwatch options to choose from, and it’s up to you to pick the option that fits your needs best.

 

The Garmin Forerunner 35 is an Upgraded Lightweight Fitness Tool

The Garmin Forerunner 35 is a powerful mid-range fitness tracking smartwatch that gives you all the capabilities that you need to keep an eye on your heartrate, your pulse, where you run and much more during your workouts. It also happens to be a very capable smartwatch that brings with it standard capabilities such as smartphone updates, music controls and more. It’s essentially a more expensive, slightly more capable and updated version of the Forerunner 25, which makes it a good option for users that want a bit more than what the 25 can deliver.

The Garmin Forerunner 35 Base Features:

• Offered in four different color options
• Built-in GPS
• Heart rate monitoring with Garmin Elevate wrist rate tech
• Control smartphone music
• Get smart notifications
• Auto uploads data to Garmin Connect
• Understands different movements when tracking activities

The Forerunner 35 for Fitness Tracking

The main purpose of the Garmin Forerunner 35 is for fitness tracking on anyone that wants to work out and get in shape. This smartwatch is smart enough to pick out the different activities that you’re doing and track important metrics about each one that you perform throughout the day. The watch has a built-in heartrate monitor that uses Garmin Elevate monitoring technology to track your pulse throughout a workout and let you know how intensely you’re working. The smartwatch has a built-in GPS as well and can track your location so that you can see a map of where you’re traveling, and also track how much distance you cover when biking, walking or running. The Forerunner 35 is a powerful fitness tracking device that will make sure you know all that you need to know about every workout routine that you go through.

Save Store and Connect with Garmin Connect

The Forerunner 35 automatically sends data to your smartphone or computer, adding it to a Garmin Connect database. All the information about your heartrate, about your calorie burn, your distance travelled and everything else the smartwatch tracks, is sent straight to Garmin Connect where you can track everything. You can look at long-term trends as you get fitter over time, and you can also compare yourself to other people. This functionality is perfect for people in contests with one another, and it serves as a motivator to keep you moving throughout the day.

The Garmin Forerunner 35 is a powerful race-day tool as well for serious runners or triathletes. The watch can create a map for everyone at the event cheering you on so they know exactly where you are throughout the race. This is a fun function that many serious runners are using today. Give real-time updates throughout a race and create a more exciting event for all your fans that are out there cheering you on!

It’s a Capable Smartphone Companion

One of the major functions of a smartwatch is to work as a sort of assistant for your smartphone. The Garmin Forerunner 35 does a decent job of this without going overboard. With the watch you can see updates from your phone, including calls, text messages, email notifications and more. You won’t be using the watch to respond to these things, but you can at least stay up-to-date about who’s trying to contact you without having to pull your phone out of your pocket. Use the watch to control the music that your smartphone is pumping out without ever pulling it from your pocket, and keep an eye on everything that’s important to you conveniently with the Forerunner 35.

Daily Activity Tracking

The Garmin Forerunner 35 isn’t just for tracking your daily workouts. It’s a tool for helping you stay active and healthy all throughout the day. Use the watch to keep an eye on your activity levels during the day and to get reminders to keep moving. The watch can track your steps, it can keep on eye on your sleep patterns and if used properly can help you build healthy habits that you’ll take into the future.

An Impressive Battery Life

One serious benefit of stepping up from the Garmin Forerunner 25 to the Forerunner 35 is a nice boost in battery life. The 35 can last for up to 13 hours during standard operation. It has a 9 day tracking lifespan if you aren’t using the GPS during that time, and it can last for up to 12 months without charging if you use it as a basic watch with just the basic functions activated. With this watch you won’t have to charge it as frequently and you can very easily track vital data and see the information that you want for a few days at a time.

While you could certainly track what you need to using the Garmin Forerunner 25 without a problem, taking a step up with the 35 gives you a longer battery and some additional functions with some improved technology. This watch will make sure that you know everything you need to know about that last workout and that you understand what you need to know to improve your fitness levels as well. It’s a good investment if you are serious about your workouts, and it’s certainly a tool that you’ll come to rely on over time to make sure you are working as hard as you need to.

The Garmin Forerunner 645 Music is an All-in One Fitness Tracker and More

The Garmin Forerunner 645 Music is a powerful smartwatch that’s meant for fitness tracking and more. It’s a tool that will let you listen to your music on the go, track all the necessary fitness statistics and do things like hail an Uber, check your email and read about new restaurants. It’s a full-featured smartwatch with all the capabilities of a Garmin Fitness tracker and more, and that’s why many fitness enthusiasts choose this over one of the more limited Forerunner options.

Garmin Forerunner 645 Music Base Features:

• Offered in 6 different color options
• Holds up to 500 songs
• Can be used to play music from select services offline
• Works as a Garmin Pay solution
• Offers advanced running statistics
• 7-day battery life in smartwatch mode
• 5-hour batter life using GPS and Music
• Wrist band heart-rate-monitor
• 5 ATM water resistance
• Accepts additional apps

Track Your Workouts Accurately

The Garmin Forerunner 645 includes all the tools have allowed the previous Forerunner smartwatches to track fitness routines so accurately. It comes with a built-in GPS module to keep an eye on your location and provide you accurate information about the distance that you’ve traveled during your workouts. The watch also features some advanced accelerometers to track your overall motion and to pick out the different movements that you’re completing. It features a built-in wrist strap heart rate monitor that will get an accurate pulse for you during your workouts, so you can track your heart rate over time and to set heart rate thresholds to keep you pushing to your limits during a workout. This watch is really the ideal tool to track your fitness improvements over time, and should help you get the motivation to keep pushing as you start to see an improvement.

See Fitness Trends Over time

Like most of the other Forerunner product lineup, the Garmin Forerunner Music 645 also works with Garmin Connect to help you track your fitness data and statistics over time. You’ll be able to look back over trends and see how much you’ve improved. Share your data with others and set up competitions using Garmin Connect, which makes working out even more enjoyable overall.

A Serious Tool for Runners Looking to Improve

The Garmin Forerunner 645 Music isn’t just a fancy MP3 player that you can keep on your wrist during the day, it’s a powerful tool to help runners improve as well. Each time that you wear the watch for a run, you’ll enjoy in-depth information about your actual running mechanics. Get information about your stride length, your ground contact time balance, your vertical ratio and more as you run. This information can help you improve your running form and work on getting rid of bad habits over time. With a bit of help from this smartwatch you could become a more efficient runner.

Flexible Battery Life

The Garmin Forerunner 645 Music has adjustable battery capabilities depending on what you want to do with the smartwatch. It offers just 5 hours of battery life if you’re using listening to music and tracking your location with the built-in GPS function of this smartwatch. Battery life shoots up to a very impressive 7 day maximum when you’re just using the smartwatch as a smartwatch though. Most users will switch between the two modes throughout the day, and this will enable them to get a few days of performance out of the smartwatch before they have to plug it in. Daily charging will easily solve this issue entirely, but just charging every few days should be enough for many users.

Music on the Move

Working out is more enjoyable with good music, and with this smartwatch you won’t need to bring along an MP3 player or smartphone to enjoy just that. Instead, you can load up to 500 songs on your watch and listen everywhere that you go through a set of Bluetooth headphones. If that’s not enough, the Forerunner Music 645 also syncs with services like Spotify, allowing you to download playlists and enjoy them away from an internet connection. Any runners that were bringing along a smartphone just for the music can start safely leaving it at home with this smartwatch for more lightweight workouts.

Pay with Just your Smartwatch

If you decide that you want to stop in to a local coffee shop for a drink on your run, you can do just that with the Forerunner Music 645 even if you forget your card at home. It features Garmin Pay capabilities, letting you pay at any location you can tap a card to complete a payment. Just tap your watch at the checkout and you can conveniently buy just what you came for.

Advanced Smartwatch Capabilities

While most of the other Forerunner product lineup is designed for a lightweight fitness tracking experience, the Forerunner Music 645 is a more full-featured experience. Utilize Connect IQ to get additional apps to use on your Garmin. You can do things like check the weather, order an Uber and get information about local restaurants all from your wrist. The watch will also allow you to track everything happening on your smartphone, if you’re using it alongside a phone. See text messages, caller names, emails and more right from your watch screen. This watch has a high definition screen that will make it easy to read text and see valuable information everywhere that you go.

You can use the watch to monitor your sleep, count your steps and help you make good decisions during the day, and it’s simple enough to use that most new owners don’t have an issue learning exactly how to make the most of this smartwatch.

The Garmin Forerunner Music 645 is a high-performance fitness tracker with in-depth runner analysis capabilities and long-term data analysis. It’s a convenient tool to see smartphone updates and to keep in touch with everyone that you love. It’s a music player on the go, so that you can do yard work, take on tough runs, taxing bike rides, or just sit on the subway while listening to some excellent music with controls right on your wrist. This smartwatch is an all-in-one tool that any athlete would be happy to have, and it’s flexible enough to hold up to everyday use very well. The only real downside with this smartwatch is that it isn’t as capable of a swimmer as the Forerunner 25 and 35 watches. It’s still good for lightweight swimming, but definitely isn’t a watch that you’ll want to take deep down with a rating of 5 ATM for water resistance. If you’re looking for a serious dive watch make sure to look at the Garmin Descent. Overall the Forerunner 645 is a solid investment and will quickly become a tool that you rely on.

The Garmin Forerunner 735 XT is an All-In-One Fitness Tracking Smartwatch

The Garmin Forerunner 735 XT is a full-features fitness tracking smartwatch from Garmin. This product is built to give you in-depth information about your workouts and to help you track that information over time, but it’s more than that. It’s a tool to help you get more done during the day, and to take a more streamlined approach toward health, fitness and life in general. The watch isn’t cheap, but it’s highly capable and certainly something that you’re going to want to bring with you everywhere you go.

Garmin Forerunner 735 XT Base Features:

• Built-in GPS
• Offers VO2 Max and lactate threshold estimator
• Built-in recovery advisor and race predictor
• Customizable with different watch faces
• Elevate heart rate tracking
• Advanced running metrics
• Tracks different fitness activities accurately
• Smart notifications
• Compatible with Strava Live Segments
• Syncs with Garmin Connect
• LiveTrack Support

Track Your Fitness Progress

The Garmin Forerunner 735 XT is a powerful tool to monitor and track your fitness progress over time. Use it in the heart of a serious workout to see your heart rate thanks to accurate Elevate heart rate tracking through a built-in wrist tracker. This information can help you stick within a certain effort range during your workout so you’re pushing hard enough. The watch can also help you see estimated VO2 Max information and lactate threshold figures so you can accurately push yourself to the limit time and time again. It’s the watch that you want at your side when you’re trying to train yourself hard, but train with precision as well. you’ll always know when you’re pushing as hard as you should be, and when you aren’t you’ll have a tool telling you to pick up the pace.

All the data that the smartwatch pulls from you as you run, cycle, swim or do whatever it is that you’re doing syncs up with Garmin Connect over time. This information is stored away in spreadsheets and databases, so you can look back at your progress over time. You can very easily see everything that you’ve accomplished and how far you’ve come from your initial workouts. This is one of the biggest benefits of a smartwatch like the Garmin Forerunner 735 XT, because it helps you see the big picture that’s so easy to miss if you aren’t tracking your progress over time.

A Great Raceday Tool

For all you serious racers out there, the Garmin Forerunner 735 XT is the powerful tool for you because it offers LiveTrack support. It will give family and friends a real time location so they know just where you are on the race course. This feature triggers as soon as you get moving in your race and will send updates to everyone automatically so you can focus on the race and push toward that win. The watch even works for triathletes and will automatically switch its tracking type as you move from running, to cycling to swimming so you always have an accurate idea of how you are performing.

A Training Tool for Runners

Learning to run as efficiently as possible should be a goal of every single runner that’s trying to improve themselves. The Forerunner 735 XT can be a serious aid for those efforts as well because it tracks advanced running statistics as you go through your workout. Get information about your stride length, your vertical ratio and your ground contact as you’re running. These bits of information can help you gauge how good your form is and what you can improve the get faster and to move with less effort on your part. Keep referring back to your watch screen over time, and before you know it you’ll take your running form to the next level and improve your performance when race day comes around.

Enjoy this Garmin During Recovery

The Garmin Forerunner 735 XT isn’t just a tool for tough workouts and race day activities. It’s the tool that you’ll keep on your wrist during your rest periods as well. During all those low-activity times you can use the watch to track your standard activity, your sleep patterns, your steps throughout the day and how you are recovering. You’ll find yourself relying on this Garmin during the day more than you might expect, and it’s quite the useful tool for basic things like functioning as a calculator, a timer or a way to check the weather quickly.

Get Notifications and Connect to your Phone

This Garmin smartwatch connects directly to your smartphone and can give you activity updates, notifications and in-depth information about what’s going on on the screen of your smartphone. While you won’t want to use the watch to send out text messages, you can find out who’s texting you and use that information to help you decide who you want to respond to and when you want to respond. The watch can be customized to take on different looks with a wide range of watch faces to choose from, and it will accept new apps for different capabilities. It’s a powerful tool for more than just fitness tracking, and you’ll find many uses for this smartwatch over time.

A Useful Tool for Cyclists

This smartwatch is one of the first from Garmin that’s compatible with the lineup of Varia cycling devices. Use the watch as a rearview mirror for your bike, or to control your smart lights and more. It’s a high-tech controller and display for the powerful Varia tools that can help you cycle more safely.

The Garmin Forerunner 735 XT is an all-in one tracking device that offers all the different capabilities that you could ever want as an athlete. Get all the most important fitness information throughout your workouts, and before you know it you’ll be improving as an athlete. It doesn’t pack in every single feature that you might get on the latest Samsung smartwatch, but it’s one of the best for fitness tracking and is a very capable everyday smartwatch as well.

The Garmin Forerunner 935 is the Ultimate Fitness Tracker

The Garmin Forerunner 935 is one of the most powerful fitness tracking smartwatches that you can get today and it’s certainly one that you want around your wrist when you’re trying to improve as an athlete. If you are serious about building your fitness levels, and you want to give yourself the best tracking tool to watch your progress, this smartwatch is a good option to go with. Strap it on your wrist and keep up with your progress from start to finish. It compares to all the other Forerunner products favorably, offering many of the same tracking features and adding in some unique capabilities as well, making it the ultimate tracking tool.

Garmin Forerunner 935 Base Features:

• Light and comfortable design
• Swappable bands
• Includes heartrate strap monitor
• Built-in heartrate wrist monitoring
• Swappable watch faces
• Advanced smartwatch connectivity
• Important running form information
• Tracks most fitness activities
• Compatible with Garmin Connect
• Compatible with IQ Apps
• 24 hours of battery life with GPS enabled
• 2 weeks of stand-by battery life.

Quick Fitness Monitoring Capabilities

The Garmin Forerunner 935 is an impressive smartwatch for fitness enthusiasts because of it ability to show advanced fitness data in a simple format. The Training Status indicator is a powerful tool that lets you know how well you’re pushing yourself and if you are working hard enough to see real progress. It measures two metrics, training load and fitness level. The watch measures key fitness metrics like heartrate and VO2 max and compares how they are changing over time to give you your fitness trend. It also looks at how much work you are putting in each week and lets you know if you are getting soft over time.

Improve Running Form

The best runners are always looking to improve their form so they can take themselves to the next level. The Garmin Forerunner 935 makes this simpler. The watch has built-in tools to watch your form. You can find out how your cadence is, what your stride length is like, and get advanced data points like vertical oscillation and ground contact time to help you figure out just what you need to do to correct your form. When working with the watch over a short period you should be able to transform yourself into a more efficient runner overall.

Unparalleled Battery Performance

If you want a smartwatch that lets you run GPS and heartrate monitoring functions over a long period of time, the Garmin Forerunner 935 is the option for you. This high-powered smartwatch can last for up to 24 hours with the GPS feature running, something that most other Garmin Forerunners can’t hope to match. In battery saver mode the watch manages an impressive 50 hours of run time and it can go for two weeks with basic functions enabled. This is more than enough time for most users, and it means that you can go for days without having to charge your smartwatch, unless of course you’re going to be tracking your GPS location all the time.

More Capable Heartrate Tracking

Most of the Forerunner lineup relies on wrist-based heartrate tracking, which isn’t too bad and is quite accurate for the most part. It’s not the best type of heartrate monitoring though. That’s why the Garmin Forerunner 935 comes with strap-based heart rate monitors for you to attach for even more effective monitoring. It still features built-in heartrate monitoring through the wrist, but when you want more information about your heart you can put on one of the included straps, connect it to your smartwatch and get that in-depth information about things like heart rate variability and lactate threshold. This information can help you figure out just how well your training is working and give you an idea of how much to push yourself.

Improved Connectivity

This smartwatch connects with Garmin Connect, allowing you to save all the data for your heartrate, your pace, your distance traveled, calories burned and all those other things during an everyday workout, but it lets you do much more as well. The watch allows you to form competitions with other Garmin users that want to test themselves against you. It allows you to look back over fitness trends over time. The watch makes it possible for friends and family to track your every move during a heated race, and it lets you track your friends if they’re also participating in a race so you know how you stand against them. It’s a wonderful device for helping you keep in touch with others and for giving you a chance to share your fitness progress with others. Connect with the Garmin fitness community at large and create customized workout plans that you can take with you during your tough workouts to achieve more progress. With access to Training Peaks, you can see customized workouts designed just for you right on your wrist.

Track All Your Sports

Most Forerunner devices are good at tracking activities like biking, running and swimming, but the Garmin Forerunner 935 can do much more. It comes with a barometer, an accelerometer and a powerful GPS unit and can track all sorts of activities. It doesn’t matter if you are rowing, hiking, paddle boarding, golfing, or doing something else. If you are getting exercise chances are good that the watch is accurately tracking your progress and creating useful data that you’ll want to look at when you are finished.

Advanced Smartwatch Capabilities

The Garmin Forerunner 935 is a powerful smartwatch with an app store, different watch faces and everything. When you slip this watch onto your wrist you’ll be able to do many things that an everyday smartphone can do. Call an Uber, do basic calculations, see all the latest status updates from your smartphone and more. You’ll have a very capable device on your wrist and you’ll find yourself turning to it each time you have a problem to solve. The smartwatch is a useful tool to have at your disposal, and it’s one of the most capable of the Forerunner product lineup as well.

The Garmin Forerunner 935 is an advanced smartwatch that packs in all the capabilities of the lesser Forerunner models. It has a more advanced heartrate monitoring setup, it offers longer battery life and more effective tracking than ever before. The watch connects and integrates with more devices and is just a solid all-around tool that most athletes will really enjoy using.

Why the Garmin Fenix Smartwatches are Ideal for Hikers

The Garmin Fenix is a dedicated fitness tracker watch, that’s designed with the hiker in mind. Whether you climb, hike, ski, hunt, fish or work “off the beaten path” the Garmin Fenix will support you. This is another offering where Garmin’s history in navigation really shines. This smartwatch comes packed with useful features like a 3-axis compass, an altimeter and a barometer as well as a very capable GPS to help you figure out exactly where you’re going no matter where you happen to be. Use the tool to help you get through the woods, to improve your fitness levels and to just be a more capable athlete overall. This is the one I would want on my wrist out in the backcountry.

Garmin Fenix Smartwatch Features:

• 3-way compass
• GPS tracking
• Tough build quality
• Mineral glass construction
• Stores up to 1,000 waypoints and 10,000 track points
• Altimeter
• Barometer

Designed for Rough Performance

Hiking, camping and backpacking are all tough activities that are hard on technology. That’s why it’s so important that the Garmin Fenix is a tough device that can withstand hard use. It features a mineral glass display that will resist scratching capably. The watch has a tough housing that’s a bit thicker than other Garmin smartwatches. This is to hold up to shocks, bumps and the everyday demands of hiking. The watch is water resistant down to 50 meters and is just a tough tool that should withstand everyday use without a problem.

Ultimate Tracking Capabilities

Keep an eye on your location with pinpoint precision with this smartwatch. It has a reliable GPS sensor and also a set of built-in ABC sensors that are calibrated using GPS. With help from the altimeter, barometer and compass, you can effectively track your location even in the middle of a forest. You’ll have the information that you need to find your way around, you just have to know how to make use of it. This smartwatch is compatible with Garmin Basecamp, and makes it easy to plan out trips on rough terrain, to track your trips and even determine how tough a planned out hiking trail is going to be. If you’re serious about hiking, the Garmin Fenix will quickly become one of your favorite tools.

Can Be Used as a Fitness Tracker as Well

Even though the Fenix is designed primarily as a hiking tool with cool smartwatch capabilities, it also serves the purpose of a fitness tracker when set up properly. The watch is compatible with heartrate monitors, cadence bike sensors and a footpod for more accurate fitness tracking capabilities. It can very easily track your fitness levels over time when you pair it with the right accessories. If you’re a serious hiking enthusiast, but you want some fitness tracking capabilities as well, you don’t need two smartwatches, you just need a few accessories to pair with your Fenix.

Share Track Information and Waypoints with Everyone

If you’re travelling in a group, or want to be able to share information about your route with friends and family members, the Garmin Fenix will help make that easier as well. It’s wireless and allows you to effectively share tracks, waypoints and specific routes wherever you are. Let your hiking buddies know about an amazing new trail that you uncovered and send the specific details right to their Garmin smartwatches. Keep information about your hikes for use in the future, and use this smartwatch to help you communicate with other people from your group seamlessly.

Comparing the 5 and the Chronos

There are two different Fenix models from Garmin, and both are worth considering. They have some key differences though and it’s up to you to decide which one makes the most sense for you.

Both smartwatches offer a sharp screen, but the Fenix 5 has a screen with more definition for higher clarity letters and numbers. The Fenix 5 also offers up to 14 days of battery life, while the Fenix Chronos offers up to 7 days of ongoing use.

The Chronos is lacking a speaker and a gyroscope that the Fenix 5 comes packed with, limiting its capabilities a bit when you’re using third-party apps. It also has a smaller internal memory with just 32 MB of space compared to the 64 MB of space built into the Fenix 5.

Overall, the Fenix 5 is just a more capable version of the Fenix Chronos. Both smartwatches offer nearly an identical set of features, and either is an excellent option for the serious hiker that wants a tool they will actually use, but the 5 is a bit better overall. It also comes in a range of different colors which some buyers will prefer to just the silver option offered by the Fenix Chronos.

If you’re searching for a hiking smartwatch that will help make sure you’re always on course, the Garmin Fenix is a perfect addition to your smartwatch collection. It’s a powerful tool for hikers that makes it easy sharing your favorite hiking directions around. The watch can also be used as an everyday watch, as a fitness tracker and a powerful tool to get more done, making it into a capable everyday smartwatch when put in the right hands.

Finish the Mission with the Garmin Tactix Charlie Smartwatch

Garmin Tactix smartwatches are powerful devices that will help you get through some of the toughest environments on the planet without getting lost. Garmin Tactix Charlie comes with advanced tracking capabilities and all the features that you need to effectively track your routes and navigate where you need to go capably. The watch connects with GPS and GLONASS satellites and is built from rugged materials to hold up to heavy use and abuse over time. It’s a tactical tool that you can count on to last a long time.

• Preloaded TOPO mapping
• Routable map navigation
• Carbon coated titanium bezel
• Black titanium rear cover
• Stainless steel buttons
• Elevate wrist-based heart rate monitor
• Dual-position GPS format
• GPS and GLONASS sensors
• 3-axis compass
• Barometer, altimeter and gyroscope
• 12 hours battery life in smartwatch mode, 20 hours in GPS mode, 35 hours in UltraTrac battery saver mode
• Multi-sport monitoring

Built to Last

This smartwatch features a carbon-coated titanium bezel and a black titanium rear cover for immense strength and durability. It comes with corrosion-resistant stainless steel buttons and is designed to withstand whatever you can throw at it. The watch is rated to 100 meters down in the water, and will last much longer than most smartwatches do when you put them into a tough environment.

Map with Pinpoint Precision

The Garmin Tactix Charlie comes pre-loaded with sensors and features to make sure you always know where you are going. It features a full-color topographical GPS map that you can use to track your current location. The watch connects to GPS and GLONASS satellite networks, giving you better positioning information in more remote locations. Easily create courses, mark waypoints and more while out in unfamiliar locations.

Standard ABC Tools and Sensors

When you aren’t using the detailed GPS sensors and topographical maps, this smartwatch features a 3-axis compass, an altimeter and a barometer to help you find your way while you are traveling around. Use these standard devices and you can easily figure out which way to go at all times.

Advanced Tactical Information

When completing sensitive missions and traveling in very specific locations the advanced tactical features included on this smartwatch will make your life easier. The watch includes dual GPS coordinate information. It also displays MGRS, with degrees, minutes and seconds so that you can pinpoint your exact position as necessary. The watch also offers Jumpmaster activity and projected waypoints so you can get effective updates as needed.

Train Hard for Future Performance

The Garmin Taxtix Charlie smartwatch comes with a heart rate monitor that will accurately measure your heart rate right through the wrist band. It can measure information like heartrate variability, O2 depletion and lactic acid buildup to help you figure out what sort of shape your body is in and help you track your fitness improvements over time. It features multi-sport tracking capabilities and will track key fitness information whether you are biking, swimming, running, jogging, rowing or doing something else entirely. Keep track of all your workout routines and look back at them to see just how hard you trained.

Stay Connected Easily

This advanced smartwatch receives smart notifications and can show you emails, text messages and other updates from your smartphone no matter what you are currently doing. See what is on your phone so that you don’t have to take it out of your pocket at all.

Customize Your Watch

Swap between different watch faces to achieve a different look for every occasion. Add different apps to your smartwatch to take control over the functions of your watch and make sure that you have access to every feature that you need with your smartwatch. Keep an eye on details for your Uber ride, check the weather, look at local restaurant information, track run information and more with unique apps designed specifically for your Garmin smartwatch.

The Garmin Tactix Charlie is a highly capable smartwatch that’s perfect for outdoor enthusiasts, soldiers, special forces and more. When you need to be able to navigate your way through any situation, this watch is going to be your best friend. Not only is it a powerful navigation device, it’s also a tool that you can use to keep track of your life and make the most of everything that you do. Add it to your wrist and you’ll soon come to depend on all the functionality that it provides you with.

The Vivos

Garmin makes a Vivofit and a Vivomove series, and both hold some great watches that could be the best smartwatch for you.

The Garmin Vivomove HR smartwatch is an interesting device that’s a features unique hybrid styling you can’t find on most other smartwatches today. This stylish watch offers some basic fitness tracking capabilities, but lacks features like built-in GPS monitoring that other Garmin fitness devices include. It’s a highly capable smartwatch that accepts a range of apps and gives smartphone notifications capably, but it’s difficult to see what exactly this smartwatch is best at. It’s an all-around tool that you’ll find yourself relying on again and again, and it’s perfect for the tech enthusiast that wants to do it all.

Garmin Vivomove HR Base Features:

• 9 different color and style options
• Real physical watch hands
• Elevate wrist heartrate monitoring
• Quick release accessory bands
• 5 days battery life in smart mode
• 2 weeks battery life in watch mode
• Tracks sleep, calories, footsteps, VO2 max, distance traveled

Style and Function in One

The Garmin Vivomove HR is a unique smartwatch because it has real moving hands and the look of a stylish basic watch (check it out in rose gold and black , but it’s actually a capable smartwatch as well. Simply turn your wrist rapidly and the smart display loads up, giving you access to all the smart capabilities of your watch. Nobody will know you have a smartwatch most of the time, but the moment you need to access its capabilities you’ll be able to do so.

Basic Fitness Tracking

This smartwatch will track basic fitness metrics so you know how to become a healthier person on a daily basis. It features built-in hear-rate monitoring through the Elevate wrist monitor. This lets you know how many calories you’ve burned and also gives information about how hard you should push yourself during a workout. The watch can track the steps you’ve taken as well, and help make sure you’re getting enough physical activity on a regular basis. The watch will pick up on your physical activities when you begin them automatically, so you never have to press a button to kick on the watch’s fitness tracking capabilities.

This smartwatch will also track information about your overall health throughout the day. It watches your sleep to make sure you’re getting good quality sleep. It reports all this information to Garmin Connect so you can see how you’re doing over time.

Stress Tracking

Most people experience stress during portions of their day, but some experience stress more than others. The Garmin Vivomove HR will track when you are stressed. Use this information to take note of when you need a break and maybe think about doing some relaxation exercises or taking some deep breathes to make yourself feel better. If you’re looking for a way to reduce the stress in your life, this smartwatch could work surprisingly well for that purpose. A big part of managing stress is learning to recognize when it’s affecting you, and taking steps to reduce the problem before it gets too serious. That’s exactly what you can do with this product.

Get Your Notifications

Smartphone notifications are coming in on a regular basis for most people, and it’s a real hassle to pull the phone out of your pocket every time you want to look at what a notification has to say. That’s why the Garmin Vivomove HR is a nice tool. It will display all your notifications, so you always know what’s going on on your smartphone. Keep your phone in your pocket throughout the day, and only pull it out for those important occasions where you need to make a call, send an email or send out a text message.

On top of letting you see what’s going on on the screen of your smartphone, you can do things like control the music on your device and quickly change through songs or even playlists at will. You can send information to Garmin Connect and take on fitness challenges against other people that you know. This smartwatch even accepts additional apps and can handle a wide range of functions that you can’t get from most fitness trackers.

Swap Bands and Change Your Style

Get just the look that you want every single time with help from the Garmin Vivomove HR . It’s compatible with most 20mm replacement bands, so you can very easily change the color and look of your watch. Just swap out bands to suit your mood and soon enough you’ll have a collection of bands to go with each of your outfits.

The Garmin Vivomove HR is a powerful fashion accessory with a unique style that you simply don’t get with most other smartwatches. It’s designed to blend in with your look seamlessly, but it will do more than that. The smartwatch will also track your fitness levels, tell you what you need to know about how you are sleeping and help you live a stress-free life. The watch is like a powerful personal assistant that you carry around with you all the time. It will help make your life run just a bit smoother. It’s the jack-of-all-trades Garmin smartwatch. It’s not the best high-tech watch, it’s not the best fitness tracker, and it’s not the best rugged survival watch, but it does okay at each of these things. If fashion is important to you, and you want a smartwatch that’s capable of most things, this is the one for you. If you’re a hardcore athlete looking for intense tracking capabilities, you’ll want to look at the Garmin Forerunner line instead.

Garmin Vivofit 4 is a Basic Fitness  Tracking Device

Activity tracking with many smartwatches today is complex and takes a bit of time to get used to. That’s just not the case with the Garmin Vivofit 4. This device is slim, slender and very simple to use. You pretty much just slip it onto your wrist and let it track your steps and information for you from then on. You don’t even have to remember to charge this thing because it will keep running for a full year after you put it on before you have to swap the battery. If you’re looking for a basic fitness tracker that is simple to use, this is the one for you.

Garmin Vivofit 4 Base Features:

• Comes in 4 colors
• 1 year battery life
• Tracks steps, distance and calories
• Monitors sleep
• Always on customizable color display
• Move IQ for different activity detection
• Waterproof

Basic Activity Tracking

When you slip the Garmin Vivofit 4 onto your wrist, it will immediately start tracking things like the steps that you take throughout the day, total distance that you walk and the calories that you burn, or at least an estimate of your burned calories. All this information is stored away for you and it can be loaded into the Garmin Connect online service so you can store the information for later use. With one of these little guys strapped to your wrist you’ll quickly be able to see which days you walked the most and which days you sat around a bit too much. It’s a pretty good tool to help you figure out how to get more activity into your life, and it can serve as a motivator if used properly.

Form Friendly Competitions

With the Garmin Vivofit 4 and the Garmin Connect app, you can start forming competitions with friends and family members that you know. You can compete to see who can take the most steps throughout the day or the week. You can compete to see who can travel the furthest. You are free to set up all sorts of different competitions, and these will help keep you motivated to move around and to get into better shape. These competitions can be run through the smartphone app, or through the Garmin Connect software on your computer.

Track Your Sleep Quality

Getting good sleep and enough sleep each night is key to feeling good. You could be getting more sleep without even realizing it. This smart tracker can sense that sort of thing and let you know how good or bad you are sleeping at night. If you’ve been feeling tired on a regular basis and you aren’t sure why, this tool could help you uncover that mystery. Keep it on your wrist throughout the night and you’ll quickly have information about how you are sleeping and maybe even get a few ideas about what you can do to improve your sleep quality as well. Try adjusting your schedule and your sleep conditions, and then looking back at your sleep data to improve your sleep quality over time.

It’s Waterproof

With a smart tracker that will last a full year before you have to charge it, it can be a lot of work to try and remember to take it off each time you get into water. Fortunately, the Garmin Vivofit 4 is waterproof enough for showers, baths and regular swimming. It doesn’t matter if you want to take a dip in the local pool, you want to wear it during your showers or you just forget to slip this tracker off before climbing into the tub. You literally don’t have to take this wristband off all year long if you like. It’s incredibly convenient to own and you don’t have to think about much while still tracking key data metrics about your everyday life.

Track Different Exercise Activities Effectively

Not only does the Garmin Vivofit 4 track things like walking and running, but it will track a number of activities that you complete throughout the day, and it can pick up on those activities automatically. That means, you can go from running, to biking to swimming, and this Garmin tool will know when you are doing each of those different activities. You don[t’ have to switch from one mode to another to enjoy seamless tracking, and that means there is less for you to do with this tool on.

The Garmin Vivofit 4 is a basic fitness tracker, but it’s a highly convenient one. It’s designed to be simple to use and to be something that you’ll use on a daily basis without even having to think about it. You just wear it all the time, and once and awhile update your fitness app to get all the data that it’s been storing about you. You can run competitions with your loved ones, and most importantly you’ll have a motivator to get you up and moving. Sure, it’s not a full-featured smartwatch, but if you just want to track basic fitness metrics this product works just fine.

Garmin Descent MK1 is a Diver’s Best Friend

Most of the Garmin smartwatches are designed for everyday use and some effective fitness tracking, but the standard watches just don’t stand up to the rigorous demands that a diver has. That’s why the Garmin Descent MK1 was released. This diver-specific smart watch gives you all the features that you need for most scuba diving scenarios. Garmin bills this one as a “watch-sized dive computer.” It’s tough enough to withstand the environment of open water, and can offer some very useful utilities to the everyday diver. If you’re a SCUBA diver, you want this watch on your wrist.

Garmin Descent MK1 Base Features:

• Two color options
• Full featured dive computer
• Surface GPS
• Sleek watch styling
• Color display
• 3-axis compass
• Gyroscope
• Barometric altimeter
• GPS capability
• Single gas, Multi-gas, Apnea and Gauge diving support
• Built in dive log for up to 200 dives
• Share dive logs online with Garmin Connect
• Elevate wrist strap heart monitor
• 19 day battery life in watch mode
• 10 day battery life in smartwatch mode
• 40 hour battery life in dive mode
• 20 hour battery life in GPS mode

Get Valuable Dive Data

Diving successfully is all about knowing your environment. The Garmin Descent MK1 will give you important data about the water around you so that you can prepare properly and make the right decisions as you move through your dive. Get information like your current depth, total time you’ve been diving, your ascent and descent rates, decompression information, battery life and more. All of this information will make you more confident about your dive and help you do the right thing in every phase of a dive. It makes no difference if you’re a free diver, a multi-gas diver or a single-gas diver, you can get in and out of the water safely and this watch will help you do just that.

Keep Your Bearing at All Times

It can be difficult determining if you are heading in the right direction or not after you’ve gone down under the water. This is a big challenge that many divers face. The Garmin Descent MK1 can help you with this problem by giving you a range of direction-finding tools right on your wrist. Easily see a 3-axis compass, a barometer and an altimeter while you are in the water. These tools, along with a GLONASS satellite tracker and a GPS system will help keep you confident, even if you happen to lose your boat on a dive.

Monitor Your Heart Rate

Keep a close eye on your heart rate during dives with wrist-heart monitoring thanks to a built-in sensor that can effectively determine your pulse even under water. The sensor works fine when the watch is right against your skin, but won’t get an accurate reading when scanning through a wetsuit or dry suit.

Excellent Battery Life

One of the last things that you want to be worrying about while deep down under the water is the battery of your smartwatch dying. That’s why it’s so important that the Garmin Descent MK1 offers exceptional battery life. It provides you with up to 40 hours of power while in dive mode. Besides for that, the smartwatch will keep going for up to 19 days if you keep it in the standard watch mode. It can operate for 10 days in smartwatch mode, offering you connected functionality without all the extra dive features.

Keep a Log for Every Dive

Store important dive information from up to 200 different dives all on your smartwatch. That makes it easy for you to remember all those key data points from every dive that you made in different locations. Keep things like coordinates, total depth, water temperature and more, and soon enough you’ll have a valuable pool of information that you can use for yourself and your colleagues. Whether you are diving to relax and explore, or are underwater to work, having a log of your time underwater will lead to useful information.

Track Your Fitness

Even a nice dive watch like this one doesn’t have to be all about diving. The Garmin Descent MK1 can work to track important fitness metrics as well when you’re doing other activities. That means if you’re biking, swimming, climbing, running, skiing or doing something else, you can keep track of information about those activities and store them in a log for future reference. All that information gets loaded up to Garmin Connect, just like your dive logs do, and you can use it to track your fitness progress and make sure that you stay in good shape over time.

The Garmin Descent MK1 is a powerful watch for divers and it’s a tool that you’ll want to keep with you all the time soon enough. Whether you are just getting into diving, or you’re a long-time diver that’s been going down for years, this watch can help you navigate more effectively, stay safer while in the water and remember important details about your different dives.

Garmin Quatix 5 Series is Perfect for Boaters

If you’ve spent much time on boats, you have probably spent time looking at a Garmin GPS or depthfinder. Now the Garmin Quatix is also an option. The Garmin Quatix is a high-grade boating smartwatch that’s designed for sailors, and other boating enthusiasts that want to make their lives a bit easier while out on the water. This highly functional smartwatch will let you control the sound system on your boat, let you adjust the autopilot, track key boat information and also let you keep up on your smartphone updates all in one. It’s a highly functional smartwatch and a serious tool that most boaters are going to want to have. The watch looks like a standard watch on the surface, but packs in so many different features that you’ll always have the tool that you need when you need it.

• Connects with chartplotter software
• Includes smart notifications
• Elevate wrist-based heartrate monitor
• 2 weeks battery life in smartwatch mode, 24 hours in GPS mode and 60 hours in UltraTrac battery saver mode
• Comprehensive boat connectivity
• Monitors speed, depth, temperature and wind levels
• Built-in activity profiles for swimming, canoeing, paddle boarding and other common sports
• Autopilot control features
• Two different color options
• Works with a wide range of compatible boating tools and sensors

Enjoy Remote Control

If your boat features an autopilot system, you can use the Garmin Quatix 5 smartwatch to keep control of it even if you aren’t at the wheel. Adjust the heading, turn and steer your boat and switch up the autopilot features as you see the need to do. This smartwatch is designed to work with chartplotter programs and you can easily add new destinations straight from your watch to your boat’s system. To get this functionality working properly, you need to make sure that you have a compatible system installed in your boat that’s going to function with your smartwatch.

Track Key Sail Racing Metrics

If you’re into sail racing the Garmin Quatix 5 series can help you do that more effectively as well. The watch can help create a virtual starting line for you in the water and let you know just how much time you have to go to reach your starting location. Find out how much time there is to burn, chart out an optimal sailing course and track your distance along the way. You’ll love having the race countdown timer and these simple metrics will make it far easier for you to get into position before a big race.

Excellent for Aquatic Sports

Whether you are swimming, paddle boarding, kayaking or water skiing, you can use this smartwatch to help you track those activities. While kayaking you can track how far you are moving with each stroke of the paddle and also track things like your speed and distance traveled. While water skiing you can easily keep track of how fast your boat is moving even when you aren’t on it. You can also keep track of laps and will know your times for important races as well.

Navigate Effectively Wherever You Travel

It makes no difference if you are traveling on or off land. You can find your way with help from the Garmin Quatix 5 series smartwatch. It features an altimeter, a barometer a compass and a highly sensitive GPS system. Between all these different sensors you’ll have exactly what you need to track your location and figure out where you need to go. It doesn’t matter if you are lost in the woods, if you are out in the middle of a lake or if you are just driving along the road, you can get directions and figure out which way to go using the watch.

Control Your Boat Radio

These days most boats have built-in surround sound systems. Use the Quatix 5 to swap up your playlists and listen to your favorite songs while you cruise. This is a fun feature, and great for switching off a song you don’t like or turning up one you do–  whether you’re sitting by the radio or not. Use the FUSION-Link Lite app to control different stereo products that you connect to it.

Track Your Fitness Activities

Whether you are swimming, running or just casually walking around, youc an use the Quatix 5 to track your everyday fitness activities. Track your run distance, keep an eye on the total number of stair flights you climb at the mall, or just keep an eye on your heartrate throughout the day with this detailed fitness tracker. It’s a powerful tool that will give you all the information that you need to keep an eye on your fitness level and to see how you are progressing over time.

Get Smart Notifications

A smartwatch is no good if it isn’t giving you smart notifications all throughout the day. That’s one of the main tasks of a smartwatch today, and it’s why so many people rely on them. The Quatix 5 can handle this task and will help you keep track of what is going on on your smartphone without you having to take it out of your pocket. See all your latest notifications, share things with your social media community and keep up on everything that is happening without ever pulling your phone out of your pocket. It’s quick and convenient and a very nice benefit of owning a Garmin Quatix 5 smartwatch.

Most smartwatches today are designed to help with every little task that you complete without having a specialty. That’s how the Garmin Quatix 5 is different. This capable smartwatch is designed specifically with boaters in mind. It gives you all the added tools that you need to operate your boat, to keep track of your location and to make sure you aren’t making any mistakes about which way you are traveling. It’s a good overall value and a tool that you’ll come to depend on over time.

 

The Garmin Approach Product Family is Designed with Golfers in Mind

If you’re a serious golfer, you really need to know about the Garmin Approach smartwatch products. There are five different Garmin Approach watches, and each one is designed to be your smart companion while out on the golf course. Slip one of these beauties on your wrist and you can do all sorts of cool things, including keeping track of your score automatically so you know just how well you performed throughout your day on the golf course. We’re going to overview all the features common with each of the watches, then we’ll do a quick overview of each of the separate watches to help you pick the one that’s best for you. No matter which of these watches you choose, you’re going to want it with you out on the green every time you’re ready to tee up.

Know the Course Better than Ever

No matter which of the Garmin Approach smartwatches you choose, you’re going to get all the tools that you need to effectively learn a golf course faster. Each watch comes loaded with detailed information about 41,000+ golf courses from around the world. That information includes detailed yardage information specifying different hazard locations as well as distance to the front, back and center of the green. With this information you’ll always know exactly where you need to hit the ball and how hard you need to hit it.

Some of the Garmin Approach smartwatches also have detailed maps of the courses for you to examine, but this is a feature that’s only available on select courses.

Keep Score Automatically

The Garmin Approach smartwatches track all the key stats from your golf matches so that you don’t have to do so yourself. At the end of every hole you’ll know your total distance traveled, your time at the hole as well as your stroke count. Keep detailed information with ease using this smartwatch and you’ll never have to question how you performed again. Just look back at your records that all get uploaded into an online database and you’ll know all that you need to about how well you did.

Besides for these basic features, the Garmin Approach smartwatches offer added perks that you can make use of to improve your game even more, and to enhance other areas of your life. Read about each individual model to learn the highlights for them and what you can expect from the watch you decide to go with.

Garmin Approach S10

• Lightweight design
• Distance to front, back and middle of green
• Keep score during rounds
• 12 hour battery life in GPS golf mode
• Upload score to Garmin Express to track rounds
• Square screen design

The Garmin Approach S10 is an affordable golf-focused smartwatch. It doesn’t add in all the extra features that other watches do, instead it gives you a wide screen to focus on your game with. Slip this beauty on before you head out to the course and you’ll have all the tools you need to play the best game of your life.

The watch will track your game for 12 hours, and during that time it will keep track of your score and let you know the layout of the course. You can use the watch to see the distance to the front, back and middle of the green of your current hole to help improve your accuracy. After a match you can upload the score right to Garmin Connect and share it with the rest of the golfing community. Make new friends, compete against others and bond over golf all with help from this smartwatch.

Garmin Approach S20

• Square screen design
• Auto records shot distances
• Offers golf swing metrics using Garmin TruSwing
• Updates with frequently played golf courses free using CourseView
• Receives smartphone notifications
• 15 hour GPS battery life, 8 weeks activity tracking battery life

For the golfer that wants a bit of smartphone functionality as well, the Garmin Approach S20 is a powerful device that does both jobs well. It offers all the standard golfing features that you would expect, along with some good smartphone functionality. You can easily see detailed course information for 41,000 golf courses and get up-to-date distances to the middle, back and front of the green for each hole you’re on. You can open up a full map of the course you’re on, and even keep score right on your watch. Upload your scorecard from any given day at the course and compare it with other players and to your past performances.

The Approach S20 isn’t just for golfing though. This long-lasting watch offers smartphone notifications and will help you keep up on text messages, calls and emails that you receive. It’s a stylish watch and could become your companion on and off the green.

Garmin Approach X10

• Lightweight rectangular screen design
• Loaded with information about 41,000 golf courses
• Tracks distance to front, back and middle of green
• Shows shape and layout of green
• 12 hour battery life in GPS mode

The Garmin Approach X10 is a golf-focused smartwatch that gives you all the functionality that you need to golf better, but little else. It’s a purist’s device and will help you lower your score and do better on every course.

The Approach X10 comes loaded with information about 41,000 golf courses around the world, and gives detailed course maps, as well as distance information to the center of the green, the back and the front. It has a 12-hour battery life, which is more than enough time for you to get through that 18-hole golf course and it’s lightweight enough to stay out of your way when you’re swinging.

The Approach X10 only offers golf-focused features and doesn’t come with any of the extras like additional app support or smartphone notification connectivity. If you just need a device to track your golf game, this smartwatch is a low-cost option that is perfect for the task.

 

Garmin Approach X40

• GPS tracking
• Elevate heart rate monitoring
• Distances to front, back and middle of green
• Activity tracking
• 10 hours battery in GPS mode, 5 days battery in watch mode
• Auto records detected shots for analysis later
• Smart notifications
• Connects to Tru-Swing club sensor

The X40 is one of the most advanced Garmin Approach products on the marketplace today. It’s lightweight and features a slender rectangular design, but it’s packed with user-friendly features that you’ll want to utilize again and again.

On top of having the basic golf functions giving you hole and trap yardages and keeping score for you as you play through round after round, this watch will also show you a detailed information about where you’re located on the course thanks to its high performance GPS, and let you know how much distance and in what direction you need to fire off your next shot. The watch will give you a complete map of the course green, so that you can see its exact shape and figure out how to hit most effectively. The watch is also compatible with the TruSwing sensor. This special sensor tracks your swing form and helps you improve the way you hit the ball. It can connect straight to the sensor and give you feedback after each swing to help you keep in mind form adjustments you should make for peak performance.

Aside from the golf features, the smartwatch features access to smart notifications so that you can track your smartphone and see test messages, emails, missed calls and more. It also functions as a standard watch, giving you the time and allowing you to do things like set timers and alarms. It’s a powerful little tool that will help you get more done and it comes packed with a powerful battery that can last up to 5 days in watch mode, and 10 hours in GPS mode.

The Garmin Approach X40 is a powerful golfing smartwatch with a bit of smartwatch features added on as well.

Garmin Approach S60

• Circular screen design
• GPS tracking, loaded with 41,000 courses
• 10 hour battery golf mode, 10 day battery in watch mode
• Quick fit bands
• Shows course information and full maps
• Keep score and upload score
• Track swing using Garmin TruSwing
• Smartphone notifications
• Customizable watch faces
• Compatible with Connect IQ app store

The Garmin Approach S60 is a powerful smartwatch that will guide your decisions while on the golf course and also off it. It features all the standard golfing features that the other watches have, but it comes with much more as well. The watch comes with a swappable band, so you can very easily switch between different styles and looks depending on what appearance you want to achieve.

The Garmin Approach S60 comes packed with advanced golfing features that will help you take your game to the next level. It’s compatible with the TruSwing golf swing analyzer sensor that hooks to your club itself. Hook the sensor on and get a real-time analysis of how you’re hitting the ball and what you can do to fix your form. Continue to make adjustments based on what the system says and watch as you hit the ball farther and more accurately. It offers detailed course information and yardage estimates that help you determine exactly how far you have to hit the ball. It even features a map that you can touch to get an estimated distance including hills and other adjustments that must be made along the way.

When you aren’t on the golf course the S60 is a powerful and attractive smartwatch that will keep you connected to your phone and the rest of the world. Use it to see your phone notifications and to decide when you want to take your phone out of your pocket throughout the day. Choose from custom watch faces to achieve new looks and to see different bits of information. Also, choose from a wide range of apps and widgets from Connect IQ to really customize what your smartwatch can offer. The Garmin Approach S60 is the most capable of all the Golf smartwatches offered by Garmin, making it a good all-purpose watch for a golfer that wants a watch to bring around all the time.

With five different models of Garmin Approach golfing smartwatches to choose from, it can be a bit overwhelming trying to decide on the product that’s best for you. If you only care about golfing alone the X10 or S10 are both capable devices. If you want a product with a more generous feature-set, but you don’t need a full-fledged smartwatch, the X40 and S20 are both decent options that are worth a look. If you want a golfing smartwatch that also offers all the features of a standard smartwatch, you really need to invest in the Garmin Approach S60. It’s one of the most expensive options available, but offers the most well-rounded set of features and is highly useful even if you aren’t golfing. No matter which of these models you choose, they will all up your golf game and make your time out on the green slightly better. They’re good little helpers and a lot of fun to use.

Why Pilots Love Garmin D2 Smartwatches

Pilots have a lot of information to process and a lot of care goes into making the perfect flight paths and ensuring that everyone onboard is safe and sound during the trip. The Garmin D2 line of smartwatches is designed to make all that work just a bit easier. These advanced aviation smartwatches are designed specifically for pilots, and they are capable tools that make getting through the air safely simpler. The watches come with advanced flight-mapping technology and weather tracking capabilities. It’s these features that you’ll find yourself relying on the most while using the smartwatch.

Watch the Weather

Weather is crucial to flying safely. With either of the two Garmin D2 flight watches you’ll have immediate access to helpful METAR and TAF weather information. Just glance down at your watch and see all the relevant weather information to help you decide exactly how you should be flying and what flight path you should be using as well. This information is updated in real-time and your watch will connect to your smartphone in order to make sure you’re getting all the latest information.

Automatic Flight Logging

Flight logging is a time-consuming process that most pilots still have to deal with today. With help from the Garmin D2 smartwatch the process will be a bit faster. The watch automatically detects when you are lifting off with its built-in altimeter and starts creating a detailed log of all the relevant information for your aircraft as you fly. At the end of the trip the flight log is finalized and a copy of it is stored online and in the Garmin app so you have it readily available. From there you can pull any information that you need to complete your log and hopefully make your job a whole lot easier.

Create Important Flight Routes and Waypoints

These Garmin G2 smartwatches sync up with the Garmin Pilot program running on smartphones and tablets, allowing you to transfer important flight path information to your smartwatch for quick reference. Lay out your flightpath using the app and then get that information on your wrist to see it whenever you want.

The watches also sync with compatible ADS-B devices to provide you with up-to-date information about any traffic or terrain conditions that you should know about, so you’re always prepared for any upcoming issues.

Now that we’ve covered all the basic flight-related features that are included on both of the Garmin D2 aviation smartwatches, we’re going to focus a bit more on each of the specific smartwatches and what they have to offer. Learn how each is different and then choose the one that’s best-suited to your needs.

D2 Charlie

• Built-in GPS
• Advanced flight planning and tracking
• Built-in Altimeter
• NEXRAD weather display
• Airport Information
• Auto flight logging
• Interchangeable wristbands
• Multi-sport fitness tracking
• Smart notifications
• Up to 12 days battery life in smartwatch mode and 20 hours in GPS mode or 35 hours in UltraTrac mode

D2 Charlie (check out this stylish leather version) is an elegant aviation smartwatch that includes all the features listed up above as well as some others that we haven’t talked about yet. The first is a rich and colorful moving map with weather update overlays that you can look at. Easily keep an eye on your route as you travel through the air and see important landmarks, bodies of water and roadways down below you as you fly by.

The watch is a useful multi-sport tracker that will help keep track of your vitals as well as your distance traveled, calories burned and more while exercising. The watch even allows you to download workout programs from Garmin Connect to make sure that you’re pushing your body to its limits every single time.

The watch also displays smartphone updates and notifications so you can see all your important communications without taking your phone out of your pocket. It also works as a tool for golfing. Download information about more than 40,000 different golf courses and see detailed metrics about the distance and direction of the green while out on the course. The watch will even keep track of your score as you play through hole after hole of your favorite golf course.

D2 Bravo

• METAR and TAF screens for aviation weather information
• Baro-adjustable altimeter
• Zulu/UTC time reference
• Timers and alerts
• Wireless control for VIRB action cam
• GPS Receiver
• 3-axis compass with HIS course indication
• LED backlight
• Multi sport activity tracking
• Elevate wrist heart rate tracking
• Built-in airport database
• Create Mark on Target Waypoints to fly over later
• Customizable displays
• Water rated to 100 meters

The D2 Bravo is a lightweight and highly functional smartwatch designed specifically for pilots that want the most crucial information right on their wrist while planning and carrying out a flight. This watch is a powerful aviation tool, but also useful when away from the cockpit as well. This watch is a full-featured smartwatch that will give you all the tools you need to stay on top of your life, your fitness and every flight you take.

Along with all the other flight metrics that you have available to you, you can view information like GPS groundspeed, distance from waypoints or airports, estimated time routes, your glide ratio, bearing information and more. All this can be adjusted and displayed the way that you want so you have vital information readily available.

When you step away from your airplane D2 Bravo doesn’t stop being useful. Load information for up to 40,000 golf courses onto it and get detailed information about popular courses that you play on around the world.

When trying to get into shape you can see your calories burned, distance traveled, steps taken and more for a range of physical activities. The watch will even vibrate and tell you to move around if you’ve been sitting still for too long. You can also see key smartphone notifications and information right from your wrist with this smartwatch. Overall, the Garmin D2 Bravo is a capable aviation smartwatch that will help you gain access to all the most important information that you need while flying, and also make sure that you stay up to date and connected while away from the plane as well.

Both smartwatches are capable devices and they offer nearly the same feature set overall. The Garmin D2 Charlie offers a more rich and detailed moving map when you want to really get a good look at your trip and how you are moving through the air. The Charlie Bravo offers a bit more flight planning and flight path information and controls. The D2 Charlie has a slightly shorter battery offering a few hours to a few days less operation depending on what mode you have the watch on. Other than those slight differences, and the D2 Charlie having a slightly crisper display, the smartwatches are essentially the same. They both offer highly capable features for a pilot and both can help you keep track of how you’re doing while in the air and on the ground. Add one of them to your wrist and you’ll feel more capable than ever before.

Conclusion

Garmin Smartwatches offer a wide range of capabilities, and it can seem very overwhelming trying to pick out the right watch for your needs specifically. With a Garmin smartwatch for almost every activity under the sun, you might need to buy a few.

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